Hugo Chavez and the FARC boost Uribe's popularity

By Aleksander Boyd

Marbella 24.01.08 | That Alvaro Uribe is outchavezing Chavez since the very beginning became evident to me a long time ago. Colombia's president, a democratically elected man that has been outfoxing narcoterrorists attempts on his life for years now, plays the Venezuelan pariah like a fiddle. He first allowed Chavez to step in as 'negotiator' probably with the absolute certainty that by doing so the world would witness the relationship between the FARC and the Boliviarian caudillo. The latter, by clumsily appointing Rodriguez Chacin as the liaison agent and then as Interior Minister, put another nail in the coffin of his public persona, for let us never forget that FARC's leader Rodrigo Granda's family entered Venezuela under express orders of Rodriguez Chacin back in the days of his first tenure as Interior Minister. The cozy relationship between Rodriguez Chacin and the FARC is well known and documented, for how can anyone ignore his recent warm farewell to FARC members -in front of the cameras- stating "keep up your spirit and fight, we are with you"?

So there is Alvaro Uribe, sitting on a mountain of evidence linking Hugo Chavez's regime with the FARC and its activities in Venezuelan soil, all under revolutionary protection. There he has people monitoring the activities of the Venezuela Connection, dispatching cocaine by the tonnes that are being seized nowadays around the world, all departing from Chavez fiefdom. There he waits for the former paratrooper to sink himself even deeper owing to his deranged remarks and lack of restraint. From there he watches how FARC's communiques appear in official Venezuelan media before doing so in their own propaganda sites. There he is passing enough rope to Chavez so that he hangs himself before the world. The more Chavez talks the worse for him and the better for Uribe, as polls just showed. For let's not be afraid of words here, Alvaro Uribe is too big a bone for the rabid Bolivarian dog, his political ability, dignity and composure in an altogether different category. Colombian citizens and the international community have, predictably, sided with reason, with rule of law, with the prospect of bringing peace and stability to a country nearly destroyed by drug dealing terrorists posing as freedom fighters.

It remains to be seen where Chavez's fuite en avant will end. If an armed conflict with Colombia does come about the Bolivarian revolution will last as long as Noriega did. Being Venezuelan and knowing the idiosyncrasy of my countrymen a bit I can predict that very few chavistas will follow Chavez into this demented adventure of his. Chavez himself will stain his pants, as he did during the failed coup in 1992 according to historian Manuel Caballero, and won't dare come near the action to 'lead' his non existent armies. Venezuelan armed forces won't back him up. His militias and Bolivarian circles have a logistic and military capabilities equal to that of Saddam's armies during the Gulf War, without, of course, the fundamentalist component. Probably the ones more committed to maintain the charade alive are the very FARC narcoterrorists who have all to lose and have had to run for their lives and hide in Venezuela since Uribe decided to bring them before justice. This clown of a revolutionary, with all his money and toys, stands no chance. That much is clear.